


we'll make our lives

by LJF



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, Other additional characters to be added, Post-Canon, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:15:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28666098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LJF/pseuds/LJF
Summary: It's been years since the war ended, but Ty Lee is as lost as ever. Her sisters and friends seem to have all settled down and figured their lives out, but she still finds herself wandering, desperately searching for a place she can call home.It's been years since the war ended, and Jet has (almost) everything he never let himself dream of. A quiet, peaceful life, away from the fear and anger that once tormented him.The two of them have never met, but a single reckless night is about to change all of that. Will it be for better or for worse? Only time will tell.
Relationships: Jet/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	we'll make our lives

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Soozen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soozen/gifts).



> All hail Soozen, captain of the SS JetLee!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jet woke up with a headache and tried to put the pieces together-- the picture didn't look very pretty. 
> 
> Ty Lee tried not to let this _stranger_ see _just_ how rattled she was-- it didn't seem to be working.

Jet woke up with a mild headache. That wasn't especially unusual, he'd been getting them since he was a teenager. Turned out having creepy guys mess around with your head wasn't the greatest idea, who'd have guessed? He'd been to various doctors and healers over the years, and they'd all shrugged their shoulders. It didn't seem like there was anything _seriously_ wrong with his head, and if a few headaches were the price to pay for getting out of that city alive, he'd pay it ten times over. 

He sighed, opening his eyes. _Guess I might as well brew some of that willow tea._ He didn't _love_ the stuff, but it worked in a pinch. 

Jet rolled out of bed slowly, stretching his muscles as he did so. They were kind of stiff this morning-- he wasn't sure if that meant it was going to rain soon, or if he was just getting old. Hopefully, the first-- crops could use a little more rain before the harvest season started. Or, at least, that's what Pipsqueak had told him. _I should go visit him soon._

It wasn't until he stood up and looked back that Jet realized he _might_ have a little problem.

There was a woman in his bed.

 _Man, you_ promised _you were going to stop doing this._ It wasn't the first time he'd woken up to find a stranger in his bed, but he'd sworn off drunken hook-ups _ages_ ago. He tried to remember the last time this had happened....... _probably the morning after Aki left._ How long ago had that been? _It was nearly summer, and it's almost autumn now..... so, seven years, give or take a few months?_

Great. Now he had to figure out how to get her _out_ of here. Preferably _without_ getting slapped.

"Um, hello? Ma'am?" Wonderful. He'd apparently invited the woman home, but he couldn't remember her name. He could hear Aki's voice in his mind. _'Trust me, you're definitely a catch.'_ Yeah, right.

But something wasn't right here. He _knew_ he hadn't had that much to drink last night, so there was no way he'd gotten black-out drunk enough to bring a literal stranger into his house, let alone..... do anything else, _right_?

 _C'mon, what do you remember?_ He tried to piece it together as he dressed. He'd gone to the bar, flirted a little with a brunette he'd never seen around here before-- he looked back over to the bed. _Yeah, that's her._ Alright, fine, flirting was one thing. but what-

 _No, no, no, please don't tell you you did something this monumentally_ stupid _._

His eyes flickered over to the table, but before he could check, he heard a _scream_.

"Well, look who finally woke up," he said. Forty-five years old, and his knee-jerk reaction to discomfort was still to break out the sarcasm. It was a wonder Aki had actually bothered sticking around for so long.

"You-what-how-" The stranger spluttered as she sat up, the blanket she'd been bundled up in falling from her shoulders to reveal-- Jet averted his eyes. _Guess that answers that question._

"I really am sorry about all of this," Jet said, sighing. It wasn't _her_ fault they'd ended up in this mess. Or, at least, no more than it was his.

He heard her scrambling around, presumably gathering her clothes.

"I don't- just- how did this _happen_?" Jet turned back to see the woman hanging off the bed, her knees bent at an angle. Her upside-down expression was one of pure _panic_.

"We were drinking," he said. "One thing led to another, and...."

* * *

_Twelve hours earlier_

Ty Lee sighed, staring down into her drink. 

_What is_ wrong _with me?_

Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing, what they wanted. Mai was traveling with her husband, Ji Li had finished her research in the south and was doing a residency in Agna Qel'a, Toph's academy was as wildly successful as ever, Yonten was already making a name for himself in Ba Sing Se, Suki's oldest seemed primed to take over any day now, and Sayuri's older kids were _teenagers_. (Even Ty Lee's _sisters_ seemed to have figure themselves out-- who'd have guessed Ty Woo would become a _doctor_ , of all things?)

And now, this latest news, which had reached Ty Lee the day before she'd left Omashu.

_Izumi's engaged._

Izumi, who'd been born when Ty Lee was twenty-five. (She could still remember the moment Zuko had carefully placed his infant daughter in her arms. That hadn't been the first time she'd seen a baby, of course. It hadn't even been the first time she'd _held_ a baby. But that moment, looking down into the little girl's face and stroking her hair, had been the first time she could remember thinking _I want this, too_.) (Little Izumi was getting _married_ , and Ty Lee was no closer to that dream than she had been then.) 

"Well, happy forty-third birthday to me," she grumbled, pouring back her drink.

It wasn't as though she'd _planned_ for her life to take the direction it had. She'd spent the first few years after the war with the Kyoshi Warriors, believing that _that_ was where she belonged. At some point, though, she'd realized that life wasn't for her, and had slipped away in the night, leaving behind her uniform and note. 

She'd spent her twenties in a string of bad relationships, more in love with the _idea_ of being in love than with the actual people she was dating. Eventually, though, she'd come to realize that what she was doing wan't just hurting _her_ , but those she was getting involved with. It wasn't fair to them, and it wasn't fair to her.

So she'd decided to take a dating hiatus. Figure out what she wanted from _herself_ before deciding what she wanted from someone _else_.

And she'd kept traveling. Looking. Searching. Trying to find that elusive thing she'd been wanting for so long-- somewhere that felt like _home_. A place that was _hers_. Something she'd miss when she left behind.

And yet here she was, nearly half way through her forties, and just as lonely and confused as ever.

"Another drink, please!" She held out her cup, and the bartender started walking in her direction. But before he reached her, the tavern door swung open, revealing a lanky man who was probably around her age. He walked over and plopped himself next to her.

"What's a beautiful woman like you doing looking so sad?" The stranger asked.

 _He's cute, too. Shame._ She'd sworn off Earth Kingdom boys _ages_ ago-- they were just so _pushy_. Not all of them, of course (Haru, for example, had always been a perfect gentleman), but enough to make her wary.

But it was her birthday, and she was lonely, and here was a nice man who thought she was pretty.

_What harm could a little flirtation do?_

-

He was still talking. She'd woken up in a strange man's bed, her mind too muddled from alcohol to remember much more of the night before than the briefest flashest of warmth, and skin, and-

And he was trying to tell her something, but she couldn't hear him over the pounding in her head-- and her chest.

"How could I be so _stupid_?" Ty Lee moaned, burying her face in her hands.

"It happens," the man said. "Again, I'm really so-"

"Now I'll _never_ be able to get married!" No matter _how_ drunk she'd been, she couldn't imagine _ever_ willingly being _quite_ this _reckless_.

_It'll be fine, right? I mean, it's not like anyone else ever has to kn-_

"I don't think that's going to be a problem," he was saying. _What does_ he _know?_

"Look, I know things are a little _different_ around here," Ty Lee snapped. "But where I come from-"

"I think you should see this," he interrupted, picking up something from the table and handing it in her direction.

Annoyed at the interruption, she grabbed it from his hand.

Head swimming, her eyes scanned the paper, trying to figure out what it was. There was her name, next to one she didn't recognize-- she glanced up at the man, assuming it was his.

 _He certainly doesn't_ look _like a 'Shi.'_

Before she could make a comment about it, the words written at the very _top_ of the page caught her eye, and her breath hitched. 

_Registration of Marriage_

" _WHAT?!_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A note on names: So you may have noticed that, in their ramblings, Ty Lee and Jet mentioned some character names that are _clearly_ non-canonical, presumably belonging to OCs, and you may be wondering more about them.  
> One of the things I'm really trying to highlight in this story is that _time has passed_ since canon. These characters have had _lives_ and they've encountered and formed relationships with people _aside_ from the ones they knew when they were teenagers, because _that's what people do_.  
> Some of the names they mention are OCs I have established characterization of and plan on writing about some day, and some of them I literally came up with on a whim as I was writing, but most of them will probably not be showing up in the story, and may not ever be mentioned again. (But not Aki. Aki is super-important to Jet and will definitely come up again at some point.)

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, I am _aware_ that these characters may seem somewhat OOC. That is _intentional_ , It's been nearly thirty years, and people change-- I hope that in thirty years _I_ won't be exactly the same as I am now.


End file.
